An inconvenient truth

2010-12-02T02:35:00.000-08:00

I expresses grave concern over the state of governance in our country, which in recent months has touched such a low that even a normally reticent industrialist had to warn the government about turning the nation into a banana republic.

To begin with, there is no evidence that politicians are treated at par with citizens when they commit crimes. This is unacceptable because political leaders being role models should be awarded much more exemplary punishment and sooner, compared to an ordinary citizen for a similar crime. While the head of a corporate entity has been imprisoned, politicians with seemingly greater frauds against their names are roaming the world like dignitaries.

It is also unacceptable that after their crimes are detected – usually by the media and not by our high-cost crime busting agencies – they simply resign, wait for a cooling off period and are back in business.

Over a span of 25 years - between Bofors and Adarsh Society - a wide range of major scams have been unearthed by the media. These have unequivocally nailed the government from top to bottom. Yet, like slippery eels, the politician always gets away, presumably with generous help from the government itself.

The time has come when the civil society tells the Prime Minister “WE WANT OUR MONEY BACK”. You cannot preside over a government that has squandered away tens of thousands of crores of public money, ostensibly into personal coffers, and pretend as though nothing has happened. You cannot hide behind a fast eroding veneer of dubious honesty and not be accountable for spectacular fraud with the people of India. You cannot hide behind some archaic constitutional protection which allows you to be insulated from criminal misgovernance that has kept our wondrous country poor, illiterate and backward.

The time has also come for the civil society to ask the government “WHERE DID YOU GET THE MONEY FROM IN THE FIRST PLACE?” By all accounts, the original budget for the CWG was some 600 crores. Where did the government get 70,000 crores from? And if you had this kind of money, where was it hidden? Why was it not used for poverty alleviation, primary education, women’s health and for modernizing our decrepit infrastructure?

Honest Criticism

2010-03-22T07:48:00.000-07:00

Reflections on India By Sean Paul Kelley
If you are Indian, or of Indian descent, I must preface this post with a clear warning: you are not going to like what I have to say. My criticisms may be very hard to stomach. But consider them as the hard words and loving advice of a good friend. Someone who’s being honest with you and wants nothing from you. These criticisms apply to all of India except Kerala and the places I didn’t visit, except that I have a feeling it applies to all of India, except as I mentioned before, Kerala. Lastly, before anyone accuses me of Western Cultural Imperialism, let me say this: if this is what India and Indians want, then hey, who am I to tell them differently. Take what you like and leave the rest. In the end it doesn’t really matter, as I get the sense that Indians, at least many upper class Indians, don’t seem to care and the lower classes just don’t know any better, what with Indian culture being so intense and pervasive on the sub-continent. But here goes, nonetheless.
India is a mess. It’s that simple, but it’s also quite complicated. I’ll start with what I think are India’s four major problems–the four most preventing India from becoming a developing nation–and then move to some of the ancillary ones. First, pollution. In my opinion the filth, squalor and all around pollution indicates a marked lack of respect for India by Indians. I don’t know how cultural the filth is, but it’s really beyond anything I have ever encountered. At times the smells, trash, refuse and excrement are like a garbage dump. Right next door to the Taj Mahal was a pile of trash that smelled so bad, was so foul as to almost ruin the entire Taj experience. Delhi, Bangalore and Chennai to a lesser degree were so very polluted as to make me physically ill. Sinus infections, ear infection, bowels churning was an all to common experience in India. Dung, be it goat, cow or human fecal matter was common on the streets. In major tourist areas filth was everywhere, littering the sidewalks, the roadways, you name it. Toilets in the middle of the road, men urinating and defecating anywhere, in broad daylight. Whole villages are plastic bag wastelands. Roadsides are choked by it. Air quality that can hardly be called quality. Far too much coal and far to few unleaded vehicles on the road. The measure should be how dangerous the air is for one’s health, not how good it is. People casually throw trash in the streets, on the roads. The only two cities that could be considered sanitary in my journey were Trivandrum–the capital of Kerala–and Calicut. I don’t know why this is. But I can assure you that at some point this pollution will cut into India’s productivity, if it already hasn’t. The pollution will hobble India’s growth path, if that indeed is what the country wants. (Which I personally doubt, as India is far too conservative a country, in the small ‘c’ sense.)
More after the jump.. The second issue, infrastructure, can be divided into four subcategories: roads, rails and ports and the electrical grid. The electrical grid is a joke. Load shedding is all too common, everywhere in India. Wide swaths of the country spend much of the day without the electricity they actually pay for. With out regular electricity, productivity, again, falls. The ports are a joke. Antiquated, out of date, hardly even appropriate for the mechanized world of container ports, more in line with the days of longshoremen and the like. Roads are an equal disaster. I only saw one elevated highway that would be considered decent in Thailand, much less Western Europe or America. And I covered fully two thirds of the country during my visit. There are so few dual carriage way roads as to be laughable. There are no traffic laws to speak of, and if there are, they are rarely obeyed, much less enforced. A drive that should take an hour takes three. A drive that should take three takes nine. The buses are at least thirty years old, if not older. Everyone in India, or who travels in India raves about the railway system. Rubbish. It’s awful. Now, when I was there in 2003 and then late 2004 it was decent. But in the last five years the traffic on the rails has grown so quickly that once again, it is threatening productivity. Waiting in line just to ask a question now takes thirty minutes. Routes are routinely sold out three and four days in advance now, leaving travelers stranded with little option except to take the decrepit and dangerous buses. At least fifty million people use the trains a day in India. 50 million people! Not surprising that wait lists of 500 or more people are common now. The rails are affordable and comprehensive but they are overcrowded and what with budget airlines popping up in India like Sadhus in an ashram the middle and lowers classes are left to deal with the over utilized rails and quality suffers. No one seems to give a shit. Seriously, I just never have the impression that the Indian government really cares. Too interested in buying weapons from Russia, Israel and the US I guess.
The last major problem in India is an old problem and can be divided into two parts that’ve been two sides of the same coin since government was invented: bureaucracy and corruption. It take triplicates to register into a hotel. To get a SIM card for one’s phone is like wading into a jungle of red-tape and photocopies one is not likely to emerge from in a good mood, much less satisfied with customer service. Getting train tickets is a terrible ordeal, first you have to find the train number, which takes 30 minutes, then you have to fill in the form, which is far from easy, then you have to wait in line to try and make a reservation, which takes 30 minutes at least and if you made a single mistake on the form back you go to the end of the queue, or what passes for a queue in India. The government is notoriously uninterested in the problems of the commoners, too busy fleecing the rich, or trying to get rich themselves in some way shape or form. Take the trash for example, civil rubbish collection authorities are too busy taking kickbacks from the wealthy to keep their areas clean that they don’t have the time, manpower, money or interest in doing their job. Rural hospitals are perennially understaffed as doctors pocket the fees the government pays them, never show up at the rural hospitals and practice in the cities instead. I could go on for quite some time about my perception of India and its problems, but in all seriousness, I don’t think anyone in India really cares. And that, to me, is the biggest problem. India is too conservative a society to want to change in any way.
Mumbai, India’s financial capital is about as filthy, polluted and poor as the worst city imaginable in Vietnam, or Indonesia–and being more polluted than Medan, in Sumatra is no easy task. The biggest rats I have ever seen were in Medan! One would expect a certain amount of, yes, I am going to use this word, backwardness, in a country that hasn’t produced so many Nobel Laureates, nuclear physicists, imminent economists and entrepreneurs. But India has all these things and what have they brought back to India with them? Nothing. The rich still have their servants, the lower castes are still there to do the dirty work and so the country remains in stasis. It’s a shame. Indians and India have many wonderful things to offer the world, but I’m far from sanguine that India will amount to much in my lifetime. Now, have at it, call me a cultural imperialist, a spoiled child of the West and all that. But remember, I’ve been there. I’ve done it. And I’ve seen 50 other countries on this planet and none, not even Ethiopia, have as long and gargantuan a laundry list of problems as India does. And the bottom line is, I don’t think India really cares. Too complacent and too conservative. Sean Paul Kelley is a travel writer, former radio host, and before that an asset manager for a Wall Street investment bank that is still (barely) alive. He recently left a fantastic job in Singapore working for Solar Winds, a software company based out of Austin to travel around the world for a year (or two). He founded The Agonist,
<http://www.agonist. org/> in 2002, which is still considered the top international affairs, culture and news destination for progressives. He is also the Global Correspondent for The Young Turks, <http://www.theyoungturks.com/story/2008/11/10/25449/781/Diary/An-Introduction-Of-Sorts> on satellite radio and Air America.

SACHIN GOD TENDULKAR

2010-02-25T15:11:00.000-08:00

this is what some of the great cricketers said abt SACHIN
(greatest ofc being sachin tendulkar)

Mathew Hayden:

I have seen GOD , he bats at no.4 for india in Tests.

Ravi Shashtri:

He is someone sent from up there to play cricket and go back.

Mark Taylor:

We did not lose to a team called india...we lost to a man called Sachin.

Brain Lara:

Sachin is a genius , i am a mere mortal!

Barry Richards:

Sachin is crickets GOD

Martin Crowe:

The shot played on this ball is only possible for the GOD of cricket.

Ian Botham:

If someoom the highest peak of the world.

Shane Warne:

I would go to bed having nightmares of sachin dancing down the ground and hitting me for sixes.

Mathew Hayden:

His life seems to be a stillness in a frantic world... [When he goes out to bat], it is beyond chaos - it is a frantic appeal by a nation to one man. The people see him as a God...

Viv Richards:

He is 99.5% Perfect.. I'll pay to watch him play.

Dennis Lillie:

If I had to bowl to Sachin I would bowl with a halmet on. He hits the ball so hard.

Steve Waugh:

After being defeated in the Coca-Cola Cup finals in Sharjah) "It was one of the greatest innings I have ever seen. There is no shame being beaten by such a great player, Sachin is perhaps only next to the Don''

Sir Don Bradman:

I saw him playing on television and was struck by his technique, so I asked my wife to come look at him. Now I never saw myself play, but I feel that this player is playing much the same as I used to play, and she looked at him on Television and said yes, there is a similarity between the two...hi compactness, technique, stroke production... it all seemed to gel! in reference to Sachin Tendulkar.

Michael Kasprowicz:

Don't bowl him bad balls, he hits the good ones for fours."

Wasim Akram:

Today, he showed the world why he is considered the best batsman around. Some of the shots he played were simply amazing. Earlier, opposing teams used to feel that Sachin's dismissal meant they could win the game. Today, I feel that the Indian players, too, feel this way.
Wasim Akram, after game at Hobart, CUB series, 1999

Brett Lee:

You might pitch a ball on the off stump and think you have bowled a good ball and he walks across and hits it for two behind midwicket. His bat looks so heavy but he just waves it around like it's a toothpick. Brett Lee, on Sachin Tendulkar's batting, 1999

BBC Sports:

Beneath the helmet, under that unruly curly hair, inside the cranium, there is something we don't know, something beyond scientific measure. Something that allows him to soar, to roam a territory of sport that, forget us, even those who are gifted enough to play alongside him cannot even fathom. When he goes out to bat, people switch on their television sets and switch off their lives.

Wasim Akram:

"I dont know what to bowl at him. i bowled an inswinger n he drove me thr covers of d front foot. then i bld an outswinger n he again punched thr covers of d backfoot(for tamil fans-dai avan eppadi pottalum adikaranda). he is d toughest batsmen i 've bowled to. he shold live long n score lots of runs, but not against pakistan(smiling) "--LEGENDARY WASIM AKRAM on our own SACHIN on 24th april 2004 on espn Sachin's 30th B day program.(i think) on his knock in 2003 worldcup.

Adam Hollioke:

"In an over I can bowl six different balls. But then Sachin looks at me with a sort of gentle arrogance down the pitch as if to say 'Can you bowl me another one?'"

Wasim

"Cricketers like Sachin come once in a lifetime and I am privileged he played in my time,"

"Tuzhe pata hai tune kiska catch chhoda hai?" Wasim Akram to Abdul Razzaq when the latter dropped Sachin's catch.

Navjot Sidhu:

"His mind is like a computer. He stores data on bowlers and knows where they are going to pitch the ball."

Mark Taylor:

"We did not lose to a team called India...we lost to a man called Sachin" - Mark Taylor, during the test match in Chennai (1997)

For a Change i Support Shiv Sena

2010-01-23T10:39:00.000-08:00

I am a bihari living in Maharashtra working in Pune , You can understand how much wrath and frustration i must be having toward political parties like Shiv sena and Raj thackrey who try to threaten us on a daily basis and are dim-witted extremist group,but i am an Indian first and for a change i support the views of Shiv Sena of not allowing Australian cricketers to play.
Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray, a couple of days ago, wrote in his party’s mouthpiece ‘Saamna’ that he and his party co-workers will not allow the Australians to enter Maharashtra in order make one point clear and straight: attack on Indians in Australia is not acceptable; a point that people sitting in North Block clearly seem to have missed.

I have always hated hardcore fascist parties like Shivsena for many reasons,but i later realized that we need elements like them for counter-attacks on many diplomatic fronts even Pakistan etc.It is the only party which has taken such a good decision on national interest ,why the hell other national parties so silent on this very important issue of our dignity and survival.
Shiv Sena seems to be right in threating Australian players as if they are hurt it certainly will have effect on Australian government and it will take harsh action against people who are committing racsist crime against peaceful Indian students and workers. When they will have fear of retalliation then only Mr Kevin Rudd will understand the problem and take it seriously.

True to the core…. Citing an incident again mentioned by Thackeray, when a great actor like Amitabh Bachchan could deny the award offered to him by the Queensland University, so as to protest the racist attacks, then why cannot the Indian cricket team follow suit? I know politics should not be mixed with the sport but everything is fair when a war on our dignity is going on.When players sing thier respective national anthem by keeping their hand on their heart ,if that is not politics than what is it??

It is not that I have some personal grudge against the Aussies, nor I am an extreme nationalist. On the contrary, the Australian cricket team is one team I admire the most.
Then, hundreds of our fellow citizens were killed by psycho terrorists inside our country, and now, many of our fellow Indians are being killed by some Aussie psychos in their country. So why should the outcome be any different? Why shouldn’t the Australian government know that whatever is happening in their country with our people is just not tolerable.
I think Australian players will also be hit economically end their cricket board will certainly pressurize their government to take some action to stop these race attacks.

A colleague of mine quoted Mahatma Gandhi while checking this piece, ‘An eye for an eye will make the world blind!’

I would have agreed to this thought before. But now, I feel, that if we continue to follow that idea, we would be far from solving this issue. I am not ‘Bapu’ who believes in non-violence and tolerance. I am more of a ‘Bhagat Singh’ follower, where ‘action speaks louder than words’!

I think we are too weak in international community and thats why we are taken for granted in every other field. The Indian government has still not been able to take any concrete measures to deal with its counterpart Down Under. And so, I am happy that at least one political party in our nation, the Shiv Sena, had the guts to come up with a statement too direct and straightforward; make your country safe for our men or you won’t be welcome here either!
Shiv Sena inspite of all its negativity is bang on target in this case and i solute there a stand and support them from my heart (Only on this point mind it)

Copenhagen Fiasco

2009-12-14T08:15:00.000-08:00

The clock is ticking to Friday, when heads of state will descend, all to sign a global

‘accord’ or at least some pact on how the world will cut emissions. Things are deadlocked, seemingly stalled. But this is only for the eyes of the uninitiated.

The fact is that the spin-masters are at work, feverishly building momentum for the blame-game to culminate — finger-pointing to countries, which are blocking the deal, destroying the one chance the world has to save the planet. India is already moving to the top of that list.

This when the industrialized world has refused to put anything meaningful on the table — no reduction at home, no money or technology transfer agreements. Instead, the two draft agreements for negotiations only harden their position. They demand, first, that developing countries (India) take on emission reduction targets, without any financial assistance. That is not a problem.

Our minister has already ‘offered’ that India will cut its carbon intensity by 20-25% by 2020. We have accepted the white man’s burden as our own.

But what the minister did not perhaps know is that he has now stepped on a slippery slope. The next demand is already ratcheting up. Industrialized countries have now demanded in no uncertain terms that all actions done domestically must be internationally monitored, reported and verified. The reason is simple as by doing this, domestic targets become legally binding global commitments. The language is getting nasty as well. ‘‘We cannot trust these nations,’’ is what US envoys said. Others repeat.

The call is growing that India wants its right to pollute. In all this, the worst fears of the Indian establishment are bound to come true: we will get isolated and blamed for the failure of the global agreement. We will be hated in the rich man’s world.

This situation is of our own making. The fact is that when the minister declared the domestic target in Parliament, he changed the goalpost. He accepted that India must switch sides to join the league of polluters, instead of being able to demand its right to development. He accepted that there is no distinction between the countries which have been historically responsible for creating the problem, and the rest, who need funds and technology to make the low-carbon leapfrog so that the world can avoid emissions. He, therefore, also implicitly rejected the notion of an agreement based on equal-burden sharing.

The carbon sums are clear, any which way: From 1890 to 2007, rich countries contributed some 60% of the carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere; India some 3%. US, with just 5% of the world’s population, alone is responsible for some 30% of the carbon dioxide in the global atmosphere.

But forget the past. If you factor in the targets of the rich world (and US), which Copenhagen is poised to endorse, industrialized countries will still occupy some 50% of the global carbon budget till 2020. US, assuming for a moment that their Senate endorses the 3% reduction over its 1990 levels, will still use up a fifth of the world’s carbon budget between 1890 and 2020.

Worse, India with its self-imposed domestic target will get some 4% of the global carbon budget between 1890 and 2020 for its people who add up to 17% of the world’s population. This agreement, therefore, will freeze inequity in the world. This when it is known that these negotiations are about the right to development. No country, as yet, has delinked the growth of its economy from emissions of carbon dioxide.

So, we can now cry wolf. But this is an outcome of the ‘pragmatic global diplomacy’ that many in the government believe is the need of the day. They openly reject the idea that global agreements can and should be based on principles of equity or justice. They say this is old-fashioned and idealistic, not fit for the real world. Their world is about global deals that give and take. The question we in India must ask is what did we get: other than the official stamp of a third-class citizen of the world?

The circle has closed. Gandhi took on the British Empire when he was thrown out of the first-class compartment. He refused to be a third-class citizen. In Copenhagen we may just decide that we must wear that shame forever.

2009-11-29T03:29:00.000-08:00

Dr. Abdul Kalam's Letter to Every Indian

Why is the media here so negative?
Why are we in India so embarrassed to recognize our own strengths, our achievements?
We are such a great nation. We have so many amazing success stories but we refuse to acknowledge them. Why?
We are the first in milk production.
We are number one in Remote sensing satellites.
We are the second largest producer of wheat.
We are the second largest producer of rice.
Look at Dr. Sudarshan , he has transferred the tribal village into a self-sustaining, self-driving unit. There are millions of such achievements but our media is only obsessed in the bad news and failures and disasters.
I was in Tel Aviv once and I was reading the Israeli newspaper. It was the day after a lot of attacks and bombardments and deaths had taken place. The Hamas had struck. But the front page of the newspaper had the picture of a Jewish gentleman who in five years had transformed his desert into an orchid and a granary. It was this inspiring picture that everyone woke up to. The gory details of killings, bombardments, deaths, were inside in the newspaper, buried among other news.

In India we only read about death, sickness, terrorism, crime.. Why are we so NEGATIVE? Another question: Why are we, as a nation so obsessed with foreign things? We want foreign T.Vs, we want foreign shirts. We want foreign technology.

Why this obsession with everything imported. Do we not realize that self-respect comes with self-reliance? I was in Hyderabad giving this lecture, when a 14 year old girl asked me for my autograph. I asked her what her goal in life is. She replied: I want to live in a developed India . For her, you and I will have to build this developed India . You must proclaim. India is not an under-developed nation; it is a highly developed nation.
Do you have 10 minutes? Allow me to come back with a vengeance.

Got 10 minutes for your country? If yes, then read; otherwise, choice is yours..
YOU say that our government is inefficient.
YOU say that our laws are too old.
YOU say that the municipality does not pick up the garbage.
YOU say that the phones don't work, the railways are a joke. The airline is the worst in the world, mails never reach their destination.
YOU say that our country has been fed to the dogs and is the absolute pits.

YOU say, say and say. What do YOU do about it?

Take a person on his way to Singapore . Give him a name - 'YOURS'. Give him a face - 'YOURS'. YOU walk out of the airport and you are at your International best. In Singapore you don't throw cigarette butts on the roads or eat in the stores. YOU are as proud of their Underground links as they are.. You pay $5 (approx. Rs. 60) to drive through Orchard Road (equivalent of Mahim Causeway or Pedder Road) between 5 PM and 8 PM. YOU come back to the parking lot to punch your parking ticket if you have over stayed in a restaurant or a shopping mall irrespective of your status identity… In Singapore you don't say anything, DO YOU? YOU wouldn't dare to eat in public during Ramadan, in Dubai .. YOU would not dare to go out without your head covered in Jeddah.
YOU would not dare to buy an employee of the telephone exchange in London at 10 pounds (Rs.650) a month to, 'see to it that my STD and ISD calls are billed to someone else.'YOU would not dare to speed beyond 55 mph (88 km/h) in Washington and then tell the traffic cop, 'Jaanta hai main kaun hoon (Do you know who I am?). I am so and so's son. Take your two bucks and get lost.' YOU wouldn't chuck an empty coconut shell anywhere other than the garbage pail on the beaches in Australia and New Zealand ..
Why don't YOU spit Paan on the streets of Tokyo ? Why don't YOU use examination jockeys or buy fake certificates in Boston ??? We are still talking of the same YOU. YOU who can respect and conform to a foreign system in other countries but cannot in your own. You who will throw papers and cigarettes on the road the moment you touch Indian ground. If you can be an involved and appreciative citizen in an alien country, why cannot you be the same here in India ?

In America every dog owner has to clean up after his pet has done the job. Same in Japan ..
Will the Indian citizen do that here?' He's right. We go to the polls to choose a government and after that forfeit all responsibility.
We sit back wanting to be pampered and expect the government to do everything for us whilst our contribution is totally negative. We expect the government to clean up but we are not going to stop chucking garbage all over the place nor are we going to stop to pick a up a stray piece of paper and throw it in the bin. We expect the railways to provide clean bathrooms but we are not going to learn the proper use of bathrooms.
We want Indian Airlines and Air India to provide the best of food and toiletries but we are not going to stop pilfering at the least opportunity.
This applies even to the staff who is known not to pass on the service to the public.

When it comes to burning social issues like those related to women, dowry, girl child! and others, we make loud drawing room protestations and continue to do the reverse at home. Our excuse? 'It's the whole system which has to change, how will it matter if I alone forego my sons' rights to a dowry.' So who's going to change the system?
What does a system consist of? Very conveniently for us it consists of our neighbours, other households, other cities, other communities and the government. But definitely not me and YOU. When it comes to us actually making a positive contribution to the system we lock ourselves along with our families into a safe cocoon and look into the distance at countries far away and wait for a Mr.Clean to come along & work miracles for us with a majestic sweep of his hand or we leave the country and run away.
Like lazy cowards hounded by our fears we run to America to bask in their glory and praise their system. When New York becomes insecure we run to England . When England experiences unemployment, we take the next flight out to the Gulf. When the Gulf is war struck, we demand to be rescued and brought home by the Indian government. Everybody is out to abuse and rape the country. Nobody thinks of feeding the system. Our conscience is mortgaged to money.

Dear Indians, The article is highly thought inductive, calls for a great deal of introspection and pricks one's conscience too…. I am echoing J. F. Kennedy's words to his fellow Americans to relate to Indians…..

'ASK WHAT WE CAN DO FOR INDIA AND DO WHAT HAS TO BE DONE TO MAKE INDIA WHAT AMERICA AND OTHER WESTERN COUNTRIES ARE TODAY'

Lets do what India needs from us.

Forward this mail to each Indian for a change instead of sending Jokes or junk mails.

Thank you,

Dr.. Abdul Kalam

Recent Changes

2009-11-25T12:19:00.000-08:00

Once........

1. We used to maintain a dedicated address book for our emails, and used to forward interesting pieces religiously.
2. We used to BUZZ each others on Yahoo messengers just for fun.
3. We used to forward SMSes to each other
4. We used to religiously follow the profiles of people on Orkut, especially their relationship statuses.
5. We used to switch off the TV when Aaila Sachin used to get out.

Life changes, river flows, time changes, priorities shift, new winds blow.
May be for the best...

Dragon Challenge.....

2009-10-16T09:28:00.000-07:00

October 2009: China invited strong protest from India after it issued separate visas for Indian Kashmiris.

June 2009: China objected to an ADB loan to Arunachal Pradesh, claiming it's a 'disputed territory' between India and China

February 2008: China again objected to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit to Arunachal Pradesh the year before that, in May, China denied a travel visa application from an Indian Administrative Service officer in Arunachal Pradesh, saying that since Arunachal is China's territory, the official did not need a visa to visit his own country.

November 2006: China and India had a verbal spat - India accused China of occupying 38,000 square kilometers of its territory in Kashmir. China claimed the whole of Arunachal Pradesh as its own.

September 1999: China objected again when India established a new Indian Army Unit in the Ladakh region

A recent poll by chinese Government says that 96% of chinese feel agitated by indian PM's visit in Arunachal Pradesh

. What does the above mentioned incident shows ?? It is clear that when a nation develops
economically the first thing it tries to do is to wrest control the neighboring countries.
In geopolitical term this is called muscle flexing.It is again quite clear that the dragon
challenge will grow leap bound as Chinese economic and military power increases exponentially
compared to Hindu growth rate.And our sleeping people will only wake up when yellow short
people with the most evil government of the world will dance on our head the one which happened in 1962.

So we have to start learning the fact that to survive in this precarious situation
in the subcontinent we need some solid plan.We have our blood enemy Pakistan in the east
,down south there is LTTE ,in nepal there is Maoist insurgency along with permanent disturbances in Bangladesh and Myanmar and there is one common fact with all these countries is that they have a very good infact excellent relation with Chinese and very bad relation with their immediate neighbor, India.Now this should certainly be designed because its not co incident that the only governmet that recognizes Myanmar,s military dictatorship is China,the only governement which provides arms and strtegic knowhow to paistan nepal and Srilanka are Chinese(APart from US).

Now should we be raising panic button to the extent that all diplomatic tie ups be stopped
till Chinese government come to negotiating table....I dont think we need to do that..we can shift entire focus of discussion by internationalizing Tibet issue and also start demanding Aksai -chin
part of J & K which is with China. Or we can give arms and ammunition to the independence
demanding groups within china to bring then to the negotiating table.All these decision making
requires political will power off course.We need aggressive diplomacy which i am reiterating
blogs after blog besause when we appear weak on our face people take us for granted and
all the talk about first becoming economic superpower and then protecting our interest is bullshit,we have umpteen number of example where we can see that india is in general a weak nation in international scene ..much weaker than even Iran ,Israel and some other nation
who are smaller than us in many terms.

The dragon challenge is also important on another level because of the Alice in wonderland thinking of some Chinese think tank who have been planning on the destruction of entire Indian nation state.Several Chinese think tank have proposed to divide India into different states to govern the new world order in which Chinese people have the area till Assam under their control
so that they can remove the human rights of those areas and imply their communist rule.

I am not a war monger at heart ,i want the problems and dispute solved peacefully...there is
also talk of arms lobby of developed worlds adding petrol to the fire but there's certainly
some fire and that's why smoke is coming again and again..but again the
same cliche "For Peace we need war preparations".If insiders and strategic think tank are to
be believed China will most probably attack India with co-operation from Pakistan and
nepal to satisfy its domestic audience and keep them united.People of China hate Indians more
than an any westerners because of our comparative size,markets interest and future superpower status.If we want to avoid 1962 when we were caught unaware by Chinese and were fooled by " Hindi chini Bhai Bhai " slogan we have to become more proactive.China had already captured close to 90000sq km of Indian area including that of Tibet which should be a free nation.Chinese government is the evil most empire in this world because who you can expect to attack their own citizen by tank at Tienanmen or attacking the most peace loving people in the world that is Buddhist monks of Tibet...We should be fully beware of the monster in our east becuse there is a saying in the hindi " Savdhani Hati ,durghatna ghati".

Maharashtra Votes...For What...There is going to be No Change..

2009-10-13T02:03:00.000-07:00

Incompetence in any form along with corruption is never to be rewarded ..Bhujbal was incriminated for the Telgi -stamp paper scam ...Chavan --is a nonentity ..whats his claim to fame ---being a congress loyalists son ..who is surving on his fathers illgotten wealth of corruption ??
.How are we allowing them to come back ??

LETTER TO PRIME MINISTER

Dear Mr. Prime minister

I am a typical mouse from Pune.. Mouse at least squeak but we don't even do that.
Today I heard your speech. In which you said 'NO BODY WOULD BE SPARED'. I would like to remind you that fourteen years has passed since serial bomb blast in Mumbai took place. Dawood was the main conspirator. Till today he is not caught. All our bolywood actors, our builders, our Gutka king meets him but your Government can not catch him. Reason is simple; all your ministers are hand in glove with him. If any attempt is made to catch him everybody will be exposed. Your statement 'NOBODY WOULD BE SPARED' is nothing but a cruel joke on this unfortunate people of India.
Enough is enough. As such after seeing terrorist attack carried out by about a dozen young boys I realize that if same thing continues days are not away when terrorist will attack by air, destroy our nuclear reactor and there will be one more Hiroshima.
We the people are left with only one mantra. Womb to Bomb to Tomb. You promised Mumbai to be Shanghai what you have given us is Jalianwala Baug.
Today only your home minister resigned. What took you so long to kick out this joker? Only reason was that he was loyal to Gandhi family. Loyalty to Gandhi family is more important than blood of innocent people, isn't it?
I am born in Bihar and bought up in Maharashtra for last 25 years. Believe me corruption in Maharashtra is worse than that in Bihar. Look at all the politician, Sharad Pawar, Chagan Bhujbal, Narayan Rane, Bal Thackray , Gopinath Munde, Raj Thackray, Vilasrao Deshmukh all are rolling in money. Vilasrao Deshmukh is one of the worst Chief minister I have seen. His only business is to increase the FSI every other day, make money and send it to Delhi so Congress can fight next election. Now the clown has found new way and will increase FSI for fisherman so they can build concrete house right on sea shore. Next time terrorist can comfortably live in those house , enjoy the beauty of sea and then attack the Mumbai at their will.
To purchase a house everybody wanted about 30% in black. A common person like me knows this and with all your intelligent agency & CBI you and your finance minister are not aware of it. Where all the black money goes? To the underworld isn't it? Our politicians take help of these goondas to vacate people by force. I myself was victim of it. If you have time please come to me, I will tell you everything.
If this has been land of fools, idiots then I would not have ever cared to write you this letter. Just see the tragedy, on one side we are reaching moon, people are so intelligent and on other side you politician has converted nectar into deadly poison. I am everything Hindu, Muslim, Christian, Schedule caste, OBC, Muslim OBC, Christian Schedule caste, Creamy Schedule caste only what I am not is INDIAN. You politician have raped every part of mother India by your policy of divide and rule.
Take example of former president Abdul Kalam. Such a intelligent person, such a fine human being. You politician didn't even spare him. Your party along with opposition joined the hands, because politician feels they are supreme and there is no place for good person.
Dear Mr Prime minister you are one of the most intelligent person, most learned person. Just wake up, be a real SARDAR. First and foremost expose all selfish politician. Ask Swiss bank to give name of all Indian account holder. Give reins of CBI to independent agency. Let them find wolf among us. There will be political upheaval but that will better than dance of death which we are witnessing every day. Just give us ambient where we can work honestly and without fear. Let there be rule of law. Everything else will be taken care of.
Choice is yours Mr. Prime Minister. Do you want to be lead by one person or you want to lead the nation of 100 Crore people?
Amresh Sinha
C-11 Sanskruti Prangan
Baner Road Balewadi
Pune 411045
9970616250

Dont waste Food.....

2009-10-10T05:22:00.000-07:00

1.	Hunger remains the No.1 cause of death in the world. Aids, Cancer etc. follow.

2.	There are 820 million chronically hungry people in the world.

3.	1/3^rd of the worldÂ’s hungry live in India.

4.	836 million Indians survive on less than Rs. 20 (less than half-a-dollar) a day.

5.	Over 20 crore Indians will sleep hungry tonight.

6.	10 million people die every year of chronic hunger and hunger-related diseases. Only eight percent are the victims of hunger caused by high-profile earthquakes, floods, droughts and wars.

7.	India has 212 million undernourished people Â– only marginally below the 215 million estimated for 1990Â–92.

99% of the 1000 Adivasi households from 40 villages in the two states, who comprised the total sample, experienced chronic hunger (unable to get two square meals, or at least one square meal and one poor/partial meal, on even one day in the week prior to the survey). Almost as many (24.1 per cent) had lived in conditions of semi-starvation during the previous month.

Over 7000 Indians die of hunger every day.

10.

Over 25 lakh Indians die of hunger every year.

11.

Despite substantial improvement in health since independence and a growth rate of 8 percent in recent years, under-nutrition remains a silent emergency in India, with almost 50 percent of Indian children underweight and more than 70 percent of the women and children with serious nutritional deficiencies as anemia.

12.

The 1998 Â– 99 Indian survey shows 57 percent of the children aged 0 Â– 3 years to be either severely or moderately stunted and/or underweight.

13.

During 2006 Â– 2007, malnutrition contributed to seven million Indian children dying, nearly two million before the age of one.

14.

30% of newborn are of low birth weight, 56% of married women are anaemic and 79% of children age 6-35 months are anaemic.

15.

The number of hungry people in India is always more than the number of people below official poverty line (while around 37% of rural households were below the poverty line in 1993-94, 80% of households suffered under nutrition).

Sources :

UN World Food Programme

UN World Health Organization: Global Database on Child Growth and Malnutrition, 2006

UN Food and Agriculture Organization: SOFI 2006 Report

National Commission for Enterprises in the Unorganized Sector (India)

National Family Health Survey 2005 Â– 06 (NFHS-3) (India)

Centre for Environment and Food Security (India)

Rural 21 (India)

Global Warming or Global Hypocrisy

2009-10-02T10:35:00.000-07:00

I want my sucking up of oxygen to be turned into some kind of payback...i dont want to be like moron animals who keeps utilising every last thing given to it without using their top of head.I want my life to be different from animals , our so called undevloped versions.... is it too much to ask..but my fellow homo sapiens don't allow me to do the same,they keep forcing me to continue being animals...they still prefer burning carbon to atmosphere so that we can melt icecaps and submerge our coastals. and thereby kill ourselves.. they keep forcing me to use coal and oil to run ACs and other machines to feel comfort at the cost of poor lives...our animal instinct is making comeback again and again and its very hard for lesser mortals like me to resist the temptation.Even the ultimate tool of human animal nuclear arsenals are so casually talked about that our existence in this human species depends upon certain conditions.I want all the
the nuclear weopons and the elements required to make them to be dumped into our favouirte
planet mars.Blanket ban on oil usage, instead of cars cycle can do ..newton made laws of motion and thats enough for us.
Rules of games should be laid out and religiously followed otherwise its doom and boom.There should be some strict international norm for unstoppable expedition and usage of natural resources. We cant continue to use it on the name of natural justice...which obviously is
a big paradox by our action. "Moralilty versus reality versus practicality leads to death
of humanity" and i cant let it happen that easily. Global warming just cant be allowed at all
and obviously the western countries have to take lead ...but we cant just wash away our hands.
Western hemisphere has to reduce per capita carbon intake, civil society has to show some civility. Although our average per capita carbon intake is lowest in the world but we as poor and coastal nation will suffer the most so we cant cut the branch on which we are sitting.
New age people have to stop from their work and start thinking and setting their priorities
right otherwise water in moon will certainly be required for us to settle their.

Why I support ruthless Osama Bin Laden.....

2009-09-05T12:50:00.000-07:00

History of last 100 years tells us that the most viscious attacks on innocent civilian people was performed by the so called devloped countries of US and europe.Hiroshima was done by US,Polish atttcks and Nazi camps were performed by germans ,entire asia was illegaly occupied by britishers,and rest of europe made whole of africa their slaves.
Then in last 50 years of so called peace time was terrorised by US occupation and hegemony in almost entire part of world ....in places like vietnam,Gulf,korea and south america.
Now the question is if a talibani beheads an American or execute suicide attacks in europe,is that justified ?? My answer is absolutely justified .Explanation for this thought which may sound a cardinal sin lies in "self protection".. Imagine a situation where USE ( short form for united states of Europe) has no fear of anybody in this world ,what will they do ......going by their previous behaiviour they will certainly want to occupy oil rich arab countries,they would want to make indians as their slaves ( if we didnt had nuclear weapons they would have certinly done this some day), perform experiments on african people like rats and collaborated with so called white races to establish their supremacy.This attcks will keep them in check and will generate a thought process among their society that why exactly people hate them.
If Osama Bin laden attacks in US everybody calls him terrorist ,but when George bush kills 50000 innocent civilians in Iraq and afganistan everybody's defination changes . I think what ever Osama has done is totally justified because self defense is morally correct but what USE does is pure greed which should be condemned.
So please think twice before calling Osama bin laden a terrorist because he is fighting for the freedom of his country from a common opressors and an enemy of mankind .

Our Urban Fiasco...Do we Need Change ???

2009-09-04T09:40:00.000-07:00

Three Indian cities, the national capital New Delhi, financial capital Mumbai and a south Indian metropolis Chennai are among the 10 worst cities in the world to be working in, said a recent survey conducted by an international consultant institution.
Sample surveys are considered as an important aspect of city planning and they are of many kinds like origin- destination survey, soil survey, surveys to check pollution level, standard of living and so on.
But for Indian cities we can have certain special and uncommon topics for surveying for example No. of persons irrigating trees by urinating along road side per day or No. of persons creating modern art by spitting on walls of govt. buildings per day or No. of persons fulfilling their water requirement through punctured water supply pipelines or Which city is accommodating maximum no. of innovative and creative beggars? (Based on their innovative style of begging) or which city is having maximum no. of multifunctional footpaths? (Multifunction includes serving as a bed to sleep, sulabh sauchalaya and platform for pedestrians off course) or which road of the city is having maximum road - vehicle interaction (because of traffic jams and standing hours on traffic lights) or which city shows maximum diversity on roads itself (diversity means motorized vehicles, non motorized vehicles, heavy vehicles, light vehicles, pedestrians, dogs, cows, donkeys, goats, pigs etc.) and there are so many or’s.
Above sentences gives a true picture of real India or we can say incredible India. It is easy to comment that a sustainable urban planning is required to gain a healthy Indian city but where are the planners??? Actually we Indians are excellent in multitasking so planners are busy in developing hi-tech cities and big residential colonies for HIG and our over talented politicians are looking up the task of city planning along with their other infinite tasks of nation building. They contributed their best in making Bangalore: a garbage city from a garden city, Mumbai: Flood capital from financial capital, and will surely keep contributing in giving some more such names to Indian cities. Other than this we have certain achievements also, we have Asia’s largest slum, our Yamuna river holds 10th rank in the worlds dirtiest river, two of the Indian cities holds 2nd and 3rd rank in the worlds most polluted cities and three of the Indian cities are among the 10 worst cities of the world.
Though the seven aspects of urban planning i.e. Social, Physical, economical, cultural, environmental, infrastructural and ecological are interlinked but dealing with the social aspect of planning is next to impossible because it includes the most complicated creation i.e. human being. On the other hand this complicated creation can only solve the problems related to urban as well as rural India.
In case of planning a city, solutions themselves create problems. For example Metros can be a solution for the problem of large commuting distance but at the same time it creates a problem of hollowing the earth and destroying the ecological barriers which in turn may result in other severe problems like earthquakes, low rainfall, global warming etc and than their solution will result in certain other problems.
Indian land and its people are used to this never ending cycle of problems and solution which is also a problem. They consider problem as their routine. King Khan has said very well “don’t be santusht, thoda aur wish karo”. Actually satisfaction is a hurdle in the way of perfection especially in case of a city.
It’s easy to say “wake up and do something” but in reality nobody follows “think first for nation than for state than for city than for colony and than for your own house” actually the concern cycle is just opposite. If an individual is getting cheap land in the outskirt of a city than while constructing his house he will never think of the burden on municipality for increasing water supply lines, sewer lines, electricity lines, telephone lines, waste disposal, roads etc. he will never think that his single house may result in the expansion of a city and can destroy its compact nature.
Actually Indian scenario is similar to the working of Indian police who arrives only after crime has already happened similarly in case of cities if problem is known nobody will look for a solution but if problem exist and reaches to its maximum than we will go for an already discovered solution by any other country. We never experiment and never initiate because we are afraid of loosing our factors of production.
"We are responsible for what we are, and whatever we wish ourselves to be, we have the power to make ourselves. If what we are now has been the result of our own past actions, it certainly follows that whatever we wish to be in future can be produced by our present actions; so we have to know how to act. “ -- Swami Vivekananda

Acknowledgement : Inputs taken from students of IIT Roorkee MURP Course

Freedom of thought in censored India

2009-09-01T09:11:00.000-07:00

“It is by the fortune of God that, in this country, we have three benefits: freedom of speech, freedom of thought, and the wisdom never to use either.” Mark Twain

Right from the day i was born i didn't had freedom. I wanted to remain silent for first couple of years of my life but i was told to speak mummy and papa as my first words(ASAP),i dont know what exactly is the problem in indian version of it ( Mataji and Pitaji may be its too long or respect quotient is much higher or may be the former one is cooler) but anyways i was forced into speaking it.When i grew up i was admitted into kindergarten whereas i wanted to be at home . I was told to repect people who are elder to me in spite of knowing fully that all people who are elder to you dont deserve that much respect.My language of communication also changed from hindi to english (I want it to remain Hinglish) basically to cater to the demands of job market, while i always wanted to remain in the ambit of Hindi because i always thought learning a new language will hinder your thought process compared to those who speak in their mother tongue.In my school i was told to attend acedemic classes for 8 hours but i wanted to understand the practical implemention of everything.I have still not understood the use of learning Atomic number of Nitrogen as i think liberal arts subject would have helped me to understand the truth of everything.My flambboyancy was restricted and told to behave in a displined manner which would help my latter life( by ruining my present i was building my future) . People decided engineering as my subject and that too electronics and till date i have not been able to visualize a single electron.I got a job and told to say Sir to my boss otherwise my impression would go wrong ,i still cant understand what kind of self impression we want to create of ourselves in front of everybody. Our himalayan hypocrisy is increasing day by day in every field and which is ultimately leading to curbing of free thought process in every sphere of our life.

“We are faced with the paradoxical fact that education has become one of the chief obstacles to intelligence and freedom of thought.” Betrand Russel

Society decides for me which movie to see ,which book to read ,which religion to follow ,what kind of work i should do,which girl to marry,what dress i wear (and in what quantity in case of girls),who my freinds should be,which countries are my enemy,which caste i belong to,what should be my eating and drinking habits be,and above all my direction of thinking.

“Freedom of speech and freedom of action are meaningless without freedom to think. And there is no freedom of thought without doubt.”

Are we really an egalitarian society which our constitution aims at??Where is my freedom to think and do what i want to do??Am i slave living in the world of so called policy makers which are elected by me.How can some fundamentalist people decides that women in india cannot go to pubs.How can a so called progressive government of Gujrat ban a book which i want to read.How can a group of shivsainiks attack a movie theatre where i have come to see my favourte movie about whose content maybe they dont agree with.How am i forced to go back from a state by a small group of people ( in spite of constitution permitting freedom of work in any of the states in india) because they in their dreams think they belong to here. What exactly is Freedom to us if nothing is implemented accordingly.Should we consider than India is ruled by the whims and fancies of small powerful groups.Aren't we supposed to be a liberal and pluralistic society ,than how could we ban homosexuality which was til now a crimnal activity in india (Its legalised in 134 countries of the world including African and Arab so called undevloped countries) .We have killled individuality in the name of collective conscience.The roadmap is blurred and confusing.

I feel trapped under the rules of democracy where majority rules.But if majority are fools should we continue being ignorant. Why can't we just accept that majority is never right infact most of the time majority is wrong because the average graph of population shows that people below the average intellect consist of 75 % of population.( Now defination of intellect varies from person to person but i am quoting figures of IQ test conducted by various agencies)

Without Freedom of thought, there can be no such Thing as Wisdom; and no such thing as public Liberty, without Freedom of speech” Benjamin Franklin

Is it coincidental or our destiny that we are the youngest and poorest kind of group in the whole of civilization .This proves that there is something wrong here.And i guess that wrong thing is our tendency to curb everything and put it in dustbin. When freedom of thought is applied in various fields it lets to innovation,creativity,spiritual enlightment,and opens the door of ulimate truth which we all are searching . It makes you do thing which nobody can ever imagine and is the ultimate path to counter every misery . I hereby demand our government and civic society to stop curbing it and do their job instead of interfering in the private lives of comon people.

P.S ----These are my views ,if u dont agree with it than give me your view which counters it or convinces me otherewise accept it with dignity.

Frame of reference

2009-08-23T06:33:00.000-07:00

Evrything we say has a veracity only in terms of frame of reference, which also decides the depth of our words in terms of correctness. When we say that our country is doing great in terms of growth,poverty alleviation and other parameters than it also should depend on what we are comparing it with.The point i am trying to make is we indians are so much trapped in fairy tale solutions that we forget what exactly is our HQ ( Happiness Quotient). When our PM says that we are experiencing a very good GDP growth rate of 8% we forget our frame of refernce , which should be china ,instead we take it with rest of the devloping world Why are we satisfied with this growth of 8% when we have the potential of growing at least 14% if all our resources are unlocked in a efficient mannner. Actually historic prevelence like being self satisfied which is deeply inrooted in our culture has also something to do with it.But fact of the matter is we need exponential growth if we want to feed our hungry population.
This is another interesting example of our dogmatic point of view in almost everything which is simply presented to us.I was talking to one of my freind about the profitablity of government run companies(PSU) like Indian Railways, BHEL, and other companies .He told me its whopping 55,000 Crores and we as a nation should be proud of it. Now what he forgot to tell me was that in last 50 years Billion of dolloars was taken as loan from world bank(25 % of our budget stil goes for the interest payments and installments of these previous loans) and other foreign agencies to provide capital to these sickening PSU and they had all the support of government,absolute monopoly in the market( no competetiors is allowed in railways unlike 10 privare mobile players in a single circle apart from the government ones) and uninterrupted supply of natural resources(ONGC and other Oil companies gets crude oil free of cost when found by the government of india) but still the return given by these companies is nothing compare to the investments occured in it. So our frame of refernce should be those companies which are making much more profite inspite of the absence of above said things.
Our frame of refernce in terms of corruption is also astonishing.When mayawati is asked why she is building expensive statues by using taxpayers money ,she simply says that congress governments have used 100 times more fund than her short tenure to promote members of their party ,latest example is calling Bandra waorli sea link as rajiv gandhi bridge which is outrageous .So if we take congrees as frame of reference for mayawati she is fairly placed to be called honest because the point raised by her is true. We can see daily in our news papers everyhing being named after Nehru -Gandhi Family as if we are living in their kingdom. Rajiv Gandhi doesnt deserve to be called so great , he has done nothing extraordinary for our country .His legacy is remembered by Bofor's and IPKF( indian peace keeping force) failures.So why are we so obssessed with such people,don't our farmers,scientist and soldiers deserve much better place than politicians in naming project,parks, statues and monuments after them?? The answer is plain no,because we always get what we deserve , and we indians are ourselves so corrupt(World bank,WTO and amnesty international ranks india after many poor african countries in terms of corruption index) ,immoral and narrowminded that we deserve such politicians above us .Their mesaage is clear, you have committed a sin by selecting them even after their misrule in last 5 years,now they will show you the shameless misuse of public fund

Even in the field of sports we have a predefined frame of reference.We never want to be a number one in cricket,we are always satisfied by beating pakistan (Even if we lose to scotland it doesn't matter than).Its our target to get 4 gold medals in London olympics (Indian Olympic committee) because our frame of refernce is to be in top 20 rank .Why cant we just decide a rational method of getting number of medals which should be our ratio of population in the world.If we cant excel at least we can try to be an average player,but no we have already decided that being mediocre is fashionable because that is the democratic dividend we must get.It is like a headless chicken running in all direction .
Yesterday i was watching a news article in which our Health minister said that our death ratio is very less compared to western countries in swine flu pandeamic. There can be only two reason for such statements either he was being normally stupid or being dumb of everything .We all know that our helth care system is worst in the world and we wil be maximum hit by the virus if its not taken care of .Our frame of refernce in this case seems to have backfired because comparing with wrong and fictuous data can prove to be fatal.
In our daily life also we casually say that he is very intelligent ( What about Einstein than ,what kind of superlatives we are going to use for him),i have worked very hard in office( what about farmers than who work in sorching heat compared to us sitting in AC comfort and getting many times more pay than a labour or a worker in manufacturing industry).
The most potent criticism of above said things will be that setting high expectation levels doesn't mean you get the results accordingly ,but than i would say having the right frame of reference always helps in deciding and structuring the path because human being is made to conquer all the possible challenges given to him.

India's Foreign Policy Debacle

2009-08-18T10:25:00.000-07:00

Foreign policy is our long term strategy to deal with the international community for our best advantage(you may call it a jingoistic view). Our nation of 1.1 billion people (which incidently is one sixth of mankind ) has not been able to formulate any particular policy to establish itself as the world leader in positive way.We dont have a clear cut policy on how to deal with our allies and opponents on international turf.
Our basic thinking of viewing everything with prism of Pakistan has led us to be allied with a failed soviet state with phoney pseudo socialist agenda. Even that was not enough we started partying in NAM ( that is non aligned movement in spite of alliance with the soviet block) which was another big failure as it was a non starter. Our recent governements than took a U-turn and started wooing USA and virtually gave USA a free hand in deciding our policy on terrrorism by declaring pakistan a staunch fighter of terrorism and that may be india is responsible for some of the terrorist attack in pakistan's balochistan.

On china front our infinite series of failure continues because we dont believe in confrontation as we indians are peace loving people. What we dont understand is peace can only come if we are always prepared for war and ready to crush enemies in its own way.

We have a very sour relationship with all our SAARC neighbours as everybody considers us their adverseries. Even when indian students are beaten abroad no action is taken.( just try to touch any US citizen in india ,i am sure the crimnal will be found in less than 24 hrs as entire state machinery will be at them). These all failures are fundamentally, because we are weak nation and nobody takes us seriously . We can get strength only by buliding our economy .

But that is a long process till that time we cant let a population of 1.1 billion suffer humiliation because of our hopeless politician. Here are few steps which i think should be taken immediatly to reverse this:

1.There should be some kind of hawkishness which is always neccessary in external affairs matter as we all know Darwin's principle ( of survival of fittest),so we need to start having hard posturing towards our biggest competitor china ,which by the way is our threat number one in terms of geopolitical stablity.

2.Pakistan policy should be dealt independently as our relationship with it should not come in the way of our relatioship with other countries.

3.Being the largest democracy in the world it is neccessary to spread democracy in other parts of the world and this could increase our leadership position among neutral countries like for the case of Myanmar ,we didn't condemned the Aaung suu kee detention in the harsh manner which in the long run can backfire.

4.Our policy with US should be based in terms of mutul trust and mutual benefit because upmanship with US can go a long way.We should press for no governemnt intervention in terms of outsourcing and farm subsidies.

5.Our policy in WTO ( doha round discussion) and global warming issue (Kyoto protocal ) needs to be aggressively fought and we need to lead the point of view of BRIC countries in international negotiation.

6.Our standing in world also depend on our military might and technological devlopemets which needs intense focus.

7.In the end our political class must grow up and leave the job with experts in at least cricial matters like external affairs,people like Sashi tharoor are welcomed by the way.

Panic Flu in Pune...

2009-08-13T11:09:00.000-07:00

Its not Swine flu but it seems lie panic Flu at least in Pune.You can see everybody wearing mask,taking all the precaution regarding food habits,socializing habits,malls multiplexes closed....people trying to avoid work, you can sense a look of unnerving calm on the face of every individual...fear of life has culminated in our soul more than the life itself. Childrens are scared by their parents to behave
otherwise the ghost of flu will gulp them in. and the big question here is who is responsible for it in pune ??..................................it mainly seems to be an urbane phenomenon
because of the affuluent people associated with it ....mainly business travellers to other countries bringing in it here. Our urban middle class who is so preocupied by its own consumerist problems that there is a deep rooted fear inside them about loosing everyhing. Poor are not much afraid because they already have malaria,TB,Cholera and other much dangerous diseases to deal with..
so this new flu virus is virtually unknown to them. Infact they didnt bring it here so they are not even responsible for its spread. But they will be blamed the most when it becomes an epedimic because of the moral degredation under which urban and richer india is suffering from

So as the blame game has been established its solution time.....
1.Panic needs to be toned down because panic doesnt help in these situation as well as there should be no complacency......so media can help in this by creating an educative coverage of the flu.
2.Again it has been proved that reserch in science and technology always pays off....so government policy should be of creating R&D atmosphere in the country because the cost associated with the delay in treatment far outweigh the investment in R & D.

3.Our usual cleanliness habits need to be improved because desipite being the worlds most sacred civilization we have to accept this harsh fact that we are the dirtiest nation in the world.We need to improve our overall concern to this topic.

4.Human body has a mechanism by which it itself produces a immune fro new virus.....as there are millions of new viruses created by our search for growth and our body has dealt with it by creating self immunization.......so my hope is that it will happen sooner or later till that time just keep ur self fit and healthy.